World: Globally largest beer consuming countries in 2004, according to Kirin survey

Global beer consumption rose by 4.2 % to 150.39 billion litres in 2004, for the 19th consecutive year of growth, Kirin Brewery Co. said in an annual global survey report on December 15, Kyodo News has communicated.

China ranked as the world's largest beer-consuming country in 2004 for the second straight year, according to Kirin Brewery Co. China had 19.0 % of global beer consumption. China became the largest beer consumer in 2003 and saw its consumption in 2004 jump by 14.6 % from the previous year to 28.64 billion litres.

Following China was the United States, where beer consumption rose 0.9 % to 23.97 billion litres.

Russia rose to fourth place from fifth to tie Brazil as Russian beer consumption expanded by 11.1 % to 8.45 billion litres on consumers' growing shift to beer from vodka.

Japan remained in sixth place with 6.55 billion litres, up 0.7 %.

Among regions, Asia's beer consumption rose 11.2 % to 43.15 billion litres, close to the 49.38 billion litres for Europe, the largest beer market in the world.

In per capita beer consumption in 2004, the Czech Republic ranked first for the 12th straight year. European countries occupied nine of the top 10 slots. Australia took the remaining one at fourth place. Japan's per capita beer consumption ranked 32nd, standing at 51.3 litres against 156.9 litres for the Czech Republic.

In 2004, beer output increased steadily in China. There is strong momentum for market demand. As consolidation strengthens in the industry, brand concentration rises; enterprises' performance improves slowly, with notable polarization trend. Foreign beer makers are staging "enclosure movement" in a big way in China's beer market. Price war remains the main competition means. Efforts to revamp product structure have produced preliminary result, as the market share of high-end beer climbs quickly. In the next few years, production capacity in the beer industry will further converge towards beer giants, and the high-end trend will become more notable. Sales channels will get thinner. Despite the decrease in the number of players, output will grow steadily.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .